Ambrosia
by Fake Nails Real Hearts
Summary: In a dusty palace, a goddess falls for a mortal. Ty Lee takes a job as a nanny after being disgraced socially and winds up in the employ of the Fire Nation royal family. But caring for an unruly toddler princess is one thing; being the object of a married adult princess's deadly infatuation is another. [Azula/Ty Lee AU]
1. Chapter 1

_Ambrosia_

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><p>look like the innocent flower<p>

but be the serpent under it

_Macbeth_, William Shakespeare

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><p>Ty Lee had a piercing headache. That was exactly how she remembered the day when she was exposed for her affair. Being branded as a whore was relatively unpleasant, but more unpleasant was the fact that she now had to take care of herself. And despite having more responsibility than most girls her age by being one in a large family, she had no idea how to begin.<p>

She had exactly zero money. Zero. After making lists of the richest Fire Nation teens, she was now without a single copper piece. The married man she destroyed paid for the apartment. She thought he took pity on her. He probably did; she looked innocent, but... there was always a darker side.

Innocence was her specialty. She radiated it, although it was simply not her. Never in her life had she felt like _her_. Like _herself_. Not once. Always, she was looking for some new calling and some new way to belong. Rarely, did it ever happen.

It was in the fog of her headache that she realized she needed a job. It was going to be beyond difficult, seeing as her only skill was honed for either the military or a massage parlor, and Ty Lee could not see herself in either. There had to be _something_. The Fire Nation was the most powerful force in the world. Unemployment was at an all time low. _Something _existed that she could sweet talk her way into.

At least until she found a rich man who was not _already _married and snagged him. That would be her ticket to an easy life. She sighed, glanced at the completely boring and bland apartment she needed to decorate but did not have the means to furnish, and walked out to go search for a job.

There had to be a tea shop or something. She was pretty enough to be a waitress. She was pretty enough to be anything she wanted to be.

Ty Lee walked out onto the beautiful city streets. It was dim and gorgeous tonight, even if the stars were blocked out by all of the smog. She could smell both the ocean and the oil in the streetlamps and even some food being cooked somewhere nearby.

It was a world of opportunities, and there was no way she _couldn't _find one that she would adapt to perfectly. Impossible.

She set out to find work.

_Somehow_.

Meanwhile, Mai stared at her daughter, trying to make sense of her. She was bright and cute and clever, but she was absolutely baffling to one of her two mothers. Both of them, actually, Mai doubts Azula even knows Zurin's birthday.

"She needs a new nanny," was what Mai walked in to today. She intended to just make brief contact with her daughter so she did not grow up to hate Mai the way she and Azula resent their mothers. But she wound up realizing she needed to find another employee.

"I don't understand why we can't just go enslave some Earth Kingdom..." Mai trailed off. She did not necessarily need to request the acquiring of slaves. It was probably an inappropriate comment when easily one of the servants looking at her could make it genuinely happen.

Mai was privileged in her youth. Always privileged. But she never had the raw power that she received when she married Azula. Even as a fiancée Mai was impressed by how much opened up to her. It was a rush that lasted very briefly, before Mai realized absolute power was incredibly boring and she would rather just go on with her life without starting another war.

It simply was _on the table _to start another war. If she wanted to.

Zurin looked at Mai with a particularly smug fervor. She seemed as if she knew exactly what a terror she was, and she was proud of it. Of course, she was four years old and presumably could not be _that _evil yet. Even if her mother was Azula. Who was exactly _that _evil.

"So what happened to her nanny?" Mai asked, studying Zurin closely. The servants gave her no response so she cocked an eyebrow at her daughter. "What did you do?"

"Nothing." Zurin crossed her arms, chin sticking out slightly. Mai sighed.

"I'm going to figure out what you did, Zu," Mai stated coldly and Zurin shrugged. Ugh. She was Azula.

And so Mai decided to find out exactly what she was in need of finding a new nanny for her daughter. Presumably from someone less terrified of her response than servants.

_Ty Lee was twelve when she wore lipstick for the first time. It was a coral shade that was difficult to come by in a world dominated by cheap red hues of all levels of toxicity. She had her hair down and it made her slender and young body almost entirely disappear._

_ She had stolen it, of course. There was no way her parents would let their promising young daughter walk around with make-up on. She was far too young. But she put on the lipstick. Too much of it. Enough that her mouth tasted vaguely of chalk._

_ "Why are you putting that on?" mother had asked and Ty Lee jumped nearly ten feet._

_ "Because I'm not as pretty as the other girls," Ty Lee admitted easily. Secrets and facades were never her trade. She dealt in fake smiles and batting of eyelashes._

_ Her mother frowned faintly. "What other girls?"_

_ "At school," Ty Lee continued, although she was certain her mother did not care. "I just want to be prettier than them. Or at least _as _pretty."_

_ "Don't try to grow up so fast," mother said as if it had anything to do with the situation. "You're beautiful. Just not the same as them."_

_ "Not the same as them?" It was the first Ty Lee had heard her mother say it, but it was not the first time she had thought it. She did not fit in with the upper-crust Fire Nation. _Colony Trash_. Colony Trash they called her and she looked it. Peachy skin, brunette. Colony Trash. Definitely had some Earth Kingdom mixed in._

_ "I can't spell it out for you, Ty," mother said, squirming uncomfortably. She did not want to admit her own displeasure at having her family relocated. "I know you don't necessarily get good grades already, but don't think about putting on lipstick to try to look like one of these girls. Worry about trying to make something of yourself someday."_

_ Ty Lee paused. She did not like the idea until she realized that if she made something of herself, all of those girls would pay._

Ty Lee found her first chance at a job in the window of an expensive restaurant. It was pretty, and there were gorgeous paintings and a variety of different butterfly hybrids crafted from metal on the walls. The patrons were all gone and the shopkeeper was closing up.

"Do you want something? I can still serve you if you..."

"I'm actually, uh, I saw the sign in the door. That you're looking for a waitress," Ty Lee said, nodding feverishly.

It would be like an audition. She did many auditions for shows in the Fire Nation and surrounding areas. Although, contortionism, cartwheels and sword-swallowing had little to do with carrying trays of food and taking orders.

She did not nail the audition. Ty Lee left with an invite for a date, but not a job. Which was exactly what got her into this mess in the first place. She was only _casually_ flirty too. Maybe she needed a new haircut or something... perhaps then people would take her seriously.

And so she returned home and decided that she would find a job some other way, before she had the water in her apartment turned off.

In the palace, Mai was enraged. It did not show in the slightest, save for maybe a particularly lethal glint in her eyes. Again. _Again_. Again with Azula. _Again_. She was a thousand times more frustrating than Zuko, because at least Zuko had met consequences for his actions in the past and occasionally valued human life other than his own.

Azula was calmly lying in their bed, thumbing through a book as if she had not done something so terrible. Given, Mai had done plenty of terrible things in her life. She never made the argument that she was ever a particularly moral or upstanding person. But Azula just had the uncanny ability to take being _awful_ to the next level. To a level that should not exist.

"I cannot believe what you did to that girl, Azula," Mai snapped, shutting the door loudly. Azula slammed the cover of her book down on her hand in surprise. "I'm trying to stay out of this, but this has happened before. It's not an okay thing to do. You realize that don't you?"

"Oh, I'm a monster for looking at other people. You've fucked my brother before," Azula snarled but Mai did not stand down or even flinch. "You fucked him while we were together. I have yet to fuck your brother so I think I'm doing well."

"Neither of us is exactly squeaky clean in this relationship, Azula," Mai replied sharply, wanting to rip her teeth into her wife. Her forced wife. And not in the fun way.

"Zurin is probably my niece," Azula said, deciding the accusation even she did not believe would settle the argument. Zurin was too young for it to be the case. But Azula had told herself that enough times that it had settled down as well as most of her comforting delusions.

"Azula, I don't have a problem with you _looking _at other people. That would be absurd. I have a problem with you getting innocent people executed because you... you just... dig your claws into them or something," Mai sighed, but it was futile.

"I can't believe with all your apathy you have so much fucking _empathy_," Azula snarled, rolling her eyes as if the matter was beneath her. Mai had to admit she was just... tired of the carnage.

"It's not empathy. I just think you're going to be ruling a nation in a handful of decades and you probably should sort out some of your sexual validation issues before you're pointing the army at battles and..." Mai trailed off. She simply did not care enough to continue. It was not like her to try to change Azula unless she was this level of enraged.

Mai sighed yet again, deciding it was not worth her time getting entangled in Azula's madness, and walked into the bathroom to get ready for bed. Not worth it. Not worth it. She stared at her face in the mirror until her cheeks were no longer ruddy and her heart was no longer racing.

This was all an unfortunate incident that Mai would avoid bringing up until she somehow located someone new to care for the child she and Azula had the time for but not the desire for. She brushed Azula's make-up away from the sink and washed her face.

_The first time Azula wore lipstick, she was twelve._

_ It was for her mother's funeral. There was no body. She had been styled before and made to look less like a _child _and more like a _princess_. But the first time she wore real lipstick was for her mother's funeral._

_ She thought she was supposed to cry or something. It tasted vile against her tongue and she thought mostly about that, but also about how nice she looked in make-up. She always was beautiful. More beautiful than her mother, certainly._

_ It was stark red. Not muted to an orange for a child or a little girl. White skin, red lips, raven hair, and she felt naked in the loose dress she never saw again. A burning, empty coffin. Wood. Just wood. _

_ She woke up the next morning with red stains on her pillow._

_ She woke up without a single thought of the woman who was gone._

Azula slept peacefully as Mai tossed and turned. Of course this would be delegated to her. _Of course_. She was finally getting settled in to this whole being married with a child thing, and then she actually had to act like a parent. There was nothing in the world that could convince her to behave maternally, but she did not exactly trust her wife with it either.

And so, Mai took her own daughter to school the next day. She woke up a good four hours before she usually would roll out of bed. Zurin was impossible to dress. _Impossible_. Mai wondered exactly how much they paid these poor women.

Zurin complained the entire way and Mai finally decided to simply bribe her senseless. The bribery paid off. Mai learned it well from her own parents.

She went for a brisk walk after finally prying her daughter from her arms. _Shiver_. There was love within her for Zurin, but not the desire to ever endure a morning like that again. Children are wonderful when you do not have to do any of the actual grunt work in raising them. Just play with them once in a while and throw them birthday parties.

It was not in Mai's high class lady training to wipe the snot of her daughter onto a napkin. Ick.

_The first time Mai wore lipstick, she was twelve._

_ Her mother put it on her before they went to some important political event. Mai had eaten her lips to disrepair. Chewing on her lips, chomping down her nails, sucking on her hair until it turned brittle. Those were all bad habits of a young Mai._

_ And so her mother lacquered her nails and painted over her lips with a light orange shade Mai hated. Mai _always _hated orange. She tied her hair up and dotted it with shells and pearls and rubies so that Mai could not force it into her mouth if she tried._

_ It was an effective way of both silencing her and keeping her pretty._

_ Typical. Typical of her parents._

Ty Lee was roused from bed by a pounding on her door. Ugh. Her sister. She slumped in the doorway with her round eyes half open. This was not pleasant.

"You realize it's mid-afternoon, don't you?" Rei asked, raising an eyebrow. "I'm helping you get a job."

"I thought none of you bitches were talking to me anymore after I destroyed that career," Ty Lee said groggily, half understanding the words she said.

"I think you could make a pretty good nanny. You do like mooching off of other people. And the only real requirement is being personable. Go pick up my daughter from school and see if there are any women who look out of place. Be personable and friendly to them. You might get a job. Or at least a friend in a high place instead of... _this_," Rei rattled off as if Ty Lee cared.

"Ugh. You just want me to pick up your kid so you can have the afternoon off," Ty Lee snapped and Rei made a face that revealed that Ty Lee was right. "Fine. At least I like kids," she sighed, adding quietly as she went into her room to get dressed, "would rather have a poodle-monkey, though."

Bending to people's will was one of Ty Lee's most notorious personality qualities. And it was so easy to exploit that she found herself at a needlessly selective preschool, sighing and waiting for her niece. Someday, she would learn how to say no. It was a skill she genuinely needed to pick up.

And then she saw an out of place woman. Out of place like, the wife of the crown princess out of place.

Maybe Rei wasn't so off base. Befriending royalty was not a bad idea at all.

Ty Lee approached her.

Azula was out of an all day war meeting early because it ended in what possibly could have been a massacre were the man in question not a firebender capable of blocking an assault. It was an interesting afternoon, certainly, but Azula was undeniably exhausted.

"Who's she?" was all Azula could fathom when she saw Mai talking awkwardly to a very _unawkward _girl.

"She could possibly be the nanny of our daughter, Azula," Mai said slowly, giving a signal with her eyes that was begging Azula to free her from the conversation. The princess wondered how long it had gone on.

"Why don't I interview you?" Azula suggested to the woman, who looked about her age. Mai gave her the most grateful expression Azula thought her face was capable of making.

"That sounds awesome." The girl leapt up with unnatural grace as Azula gestured towards a room that was not in use.

This would be quite interesting.

"I'm, well, you obviously know who I am, there's no need for that. Who are you?" started the interview. Ty Lee swallowed, blinking three times fast.

"I'm Ty Lee."

"Hm, yes. Why do you want to be in close proximity to my heir?"

"What?"

"Don't make me repeat myself. I never repeat myself."

"Oh, uh. Well, I need a job and I like kids and my niece goes to her school so I just ran into, uh, M-Princess Mai and all..." Ty Lee was rubbing her neck uncomfortably. Azula quite liked how she had already broken out into a sweat.

"That's a good reason of any," Azula said and Ty Lee looked immensely relieved. "Are you in a relationship?"

"What?"

"Don't say what again."

"Wha─I mean, _no_, I'm not in a relationship. Nothing will at all interfere with my job I _completely _promise." Ty Lee decided at that moment that if she gets this job, her two bosses will be absolute lunatics.

"That's good." The look in the crown princess's eyes was disconcerting to Ty Lee, but she was desperate. Without even a bronze piece to her name, she needed this job, regardless of the fact that she felt as if she was being stripped down by golden eyes. In the sexual way.

"So, I'm open to start whenever?" Ty Lee hoped it was not too pushy.

"You can start now." Azula shrugged. She liked the new girl.

"Did you have a nanny before?" Ty Lee asked as Azula gestured for her to walk by her side.

"Oh, yes."

"Did she quit?"

"Oh, no. She was executed."

Ty Lee's foot skidded slightly on the hardwood floor.

She might not have been in the best situation.


	2. Chapter 2

"You're still upset about that servant girl, aren't you?" Azula sighed, as she lied down in she and Mai's bed. They were utterly exhausted from a political event. "I'll stop altogether if it makes you happy."

Lies, of course. But Mai found in her life that agreeing with Azula was the only way to keep from dying an untimely death of stress. No matter how ridiculous her words were, Mai would always simply agree. Easier, less tightness of the chest involved.

"I don't think you can stop," Mai replied honestly and Azula slipped under the blankets.

"Why not?" Azula demanded softly, cocking an eyebrow.

"You develop sexual obsessions," Mai explained with a sigh. She closed her eyes and wished that they would both just go to sleep instead of confronting Azula's incredible, terrible issues. But, then again, she _did _start it.

"I don't develop _sexual obsessions_. If you're jealous tell me. I can be jealous too," Azula said regally as if it were such a consolation. Mai sighed and Azula wished that she would not.

"There's not a problem with it. I guess," Mai murmured, not knowing why she was trying. She lingered for a moment on her book. Azula was staring at the ceiling pointlessly.

Mai crept through the sheets towards Azula, trying to remember if there ever was a spark, or a certain moment. It distracted her thoughts slightly as Azula turned to her and their lips met. It was slow and hesitant, as neither knew if the other genuinely wanted it. Mai's lips trailed down Azula's neck and the princess inhaled slowly. The room smelled entirely of Azula's perfume, but Mai did not.

"I wouldn't mind having a sexual obsession with you," Azula murmured with a truly twisted smirk. Her hand was on Mai's waist as she slipped on top of her. Mai was almost relieved that she had less to do, and then she felt guilty about it.

Azula slowly slipped down Mai's thin sleeves, revealing her shoulders and then some. It felt almost medical, in a way that made Mai feel less aroused than she was when it began. More guilt. Maybe that was why Azula could not keep her hands to herself. Because something between them was dead.

Azula's rouge lips touched Mai's clavicle, and then her left breast. The heat was slow but it would not subside. Not without more.

_The first time Mai realized she liked girls was the first time she slept with Azula. It came on very quickly, before she had even registered anything else. _

_ Mai was fourteen and engaged to Zuko at the time. She was in Azula's room, in her bed, braiding her hair and wondering what normal girls, unlike them, were like. Maybe she was attracted to Azula, maybe she was not. _

_ Azula leaned back after her hair was completed. Mai watched the rise and fall of her chest with too much interest. She had heard about Azula and the girl she slept with before the girl subsequently disappeared. Mai imagined Ozai would have the same reaction to a boy, but it was evident that Azula was not interested in men._

_ People asked Mai if she was a lesbian or not. The answer was always no. She had slept with Zuko enough times to be confident in her sexuality._

_ But of course she could question it. And of course when things slowly evolved that night, Mai did not bother to stop them. She enjoyed the touch in a way she had not experienced before. And when Zuko was banished, she may have been sad to see him go, but that night, she was pulled back into the arms of a girl who would be bound to chew her up and spit her out._

_ Yet, Mai wanted more. And more. And more._

_ She decided she was fine with sleeping with a woman for the rest of her life._

_ Azula's touch made it worth it._

"That's what you're wearing to your first day of work? As a _nanny_?" Rei asked, her eyebrows nearly touching her hair. Ty Lee spun around pointedly. She was quite proud of her outfit. "That skirt is... and you really think a top like that is appropriate for children? You look like you're going to a sexy maid competition."

"I like it," Ty Lee replied sharply, crossing her arms. "I was disowned and I can do whatever I want now."

"Yes, perhaps you can regain your social status by ruining another marriage. And this time, you won't just ruin a general, you'll wind up destroying the Fire Nation while you're at it," Rei said smugly in response and Ty Lee mentally throttled her.

"I don't think either of them is interested in me," Ty Lee replied earnestly and Rei _almost _believed her. "I feel pretty in this and I want to feel pretty. That's the end of that."

Ty Lee stopped and looked around for a moment. It was an apartment that she never got the chance to decorate. It was disgusting, albeit in an upper class neighborhood. She decided as she handed Rei two of her suitcases and seized the other three, she would not miss this place one bit.

_The first time Ty Lee realized she liked girls was when she was thirteen. She was sitting in class in her boring colony trying to focus but not doing well. Math was not her strong suit and she was thinking deeply and intensely about the boy across the street who she was determined to make fall in love with her._

_ He was perfect and dreamy and looked stunning. And he was bound to be a soldier._

_ But Ty Lee was looking at her best friend and thinking that she was equally dreamy and perfect and stunning. Everything changed in a pivotal moment that might as well have slapped her in the face._

_ An all girl's school, she decided, was the reason. She was terrified of the thought of falling in love with someone who was not easy. Who was not as predictable as a boy. That she was fairly different from everyone else in a multitude of ways._

_ She fell in love with her best friend. And she lived to regret it. She was twelve when she first told her that she was in love with her, and she almost instantly regretted it. It did not go over well._

_ "You're not in love with me, anyway. You're in love with the idea of me," she said and Ty Lee realized she was right. "I guess I should've noticed."_

_ Ty Lee never had a crush that she did not put on an unrealistic pedestal. It felt best to think that the person she was in love with was inhumanly perfect. It ended several friendships, both with girls and boys._

_ And Ty Lee would fall in love again and again and every time know that she was doing more worshipping than loving._

Ty Lee arrived on her first day and suddenly felt self conscious of her outfit. She was several years younger than her superiors, who were dressed far more conservatively. But perhaps, Ty Lee hoped, it was merely because of age.

"Are you a slave or someone accompanying the heir to the throne to social events?" asked the woman Ty Lee figured out through trial and error she was supposed to report to.

"Excuse me?" Ty Lee chirped, baffled.

"You slump when you walk, you dress like you belong in a brothel, not a palace, and you stare at the ground when you're walking. Are you afraid you'll lose your feet if you don't keep an eye on them?" There was a brief silence as Ty Lee's eyes widened and her lips shrank and trembled. The elderly woman had a momentary flicker of compassion on her hardened features. "I'm Chou. I'm in charge of the servants in the palace. I've been doing it for forty years now."

"That's impressive," Ty Lee said earnestly. She had not stuck to something for more than five minutes, save for her expansive military training and while practicing for her performances. But both elite forces and freakshow do not fit in very well with the structured, gilded royal palace.

"I'll show you where you're staying," Chou said and Rei left Ty Lee with her suitcases and bolted. Ty Lee gulped and followed Chou into the palace.

Ty Lee's bedroom was nice. Very nice. It was even more ornate and gilded than her childhood bedroom, which was surprising. She lived in what once was a palace in the Earth Kingdom, washed over with Fire Nation memorabilia. But they lived like royalty in the colonies, before being outcasts with too much money in the homeland.

"Do you like it?" Chou inquired and Ty Lee knew she had to assent.

She laid out her suitcases and decided to unpack later. Chou guided her to Zurin's room, which was humongous and over decorated. The plethora of toys was more than Ty Lee had ever seen in one place. And few of them were dolls, Ty Lee noted. Quite different from her childhood.

"This is Zurin. I'll be with you today," Chou said as Ty Lee saw a little girl with a fervor in her golden eyes. She did not look pleased about Ty Lee, which made this all the more daunting.

"It's nice to meet you, Zurin," Ty Lee offered weakly.

The child did not respond.

Many hours later, Ty Lee was grateful when Zurin was finally asleep. She walked out into the courtyard, ready to stretch or practice, to somehow release the immense frustration. This job was not as easy as she thought it would be. But she knew she had to make do somehow. It _was _nice to be living in the palace.

She slipped into the courtyard, cracking her knuckles, and was met by streaks of cerulean across the crisp night air. Ty Lee walked closer before realizing she had just interrupted the princess in the middle of assaulting a steel target. It was _red _from sheer heat.

"I'm sorry," Ty Lee stammered as Azula looked up and saw her.

The princess's body shined with a light coat of glistening sweat. Ty Lee averted her eyes like she was supposed to, but Azula was walking towards her.

If Ty Lee had listened to what her mother said, she would be at home, not here, in this situation. But she was young and as dumb as they mocked her for being, and she let a charming man lead her away. And now she stood and felt exactly as she did when she realized she was in too deep with her boyfriend.

The princess looked brilliant in the starlight, but her eyes were fixated on Ty Lee. She suddenly wished she had listened to her sister and changed her clothes. Perhaps tiny bright pink dress was not the best choice, as she felt twice as exposed.

"So how was my daughter?" Azula asked, walking inside and Ty Lee breathed a sigh of relief. She was worried the princess would just keep staring with her piercing golden eyes.

"Um, alive," Ty Lee offered and Azula suppressed laughter. It was not the answer she was expecting, but it would do. "She's asleep now and I was just... well... I was just going outside to practice before bed. I didn't know you were..."

"It's not a crime to run into me. Or am I just that scary?" Azula had an amused smirk painted on her face and Ty Lee was blushing as pink as her dress.

"You're pretty scary." Ty Lee paused, her eyes flickering wide for a split second. "In a good way. In a good way."

"I know," was Azula's reply. "What are you practicing?"

"I was trained for the elite forces in the military," Ty Lee explained hastily, wanting out more desperately than she had ever wanted something.

"Yet you're a nanny?" Azula cocked an eyebrow, suddenly intrigued. The girl just looked like a pretty face, but clearly there was more to her.

"It doesn't bother me. War isn't really my speed anyway," Ty Lee said, feeling breathless.

"It's a pretty nasty thing," Azula said honestly, though with a hint of pleasure in her seductive tone.

"It's really nice out tonight. Just look at the moon," Ty Lee said uncomfortably, her adept social skills failing her.

"I never look at the sky. There's so much going on down here," Azula purred and Ty Lee inhaled sharply. The princess smirked at the small breath of fear.

"There is, isn't there?" Ty Lee murmured, hoping agreeing with Azula would help. The situation seemed futile to her.

"Like us, right now. I think that this is far more interesting than how the clouds fall over the moon," Azula said slowly, walking closer to Ty Lee. They could feel the heat rising from each other's bodies at that point. "You seem interesting. What did you do before you wound up caring for my daughter?"

"I kind of circus," Ty Lee said, the words making no sense. But Azula was undeterred.

"I see. Well, that's a much more interesting career." Azula said nothing for a moment. They were far too close and Ty Lee did not know what to do. "You look terrified."

Ty Lee examined her hands and realized just how hard they were shaking. Now she looked absolutely ridiculous. She coasted so easily through life, through any situation. But she thought she had found a weakness. Azula just obliterated the confidence of her child's caretaker.

"I'm not normally so... jumpy," Ty Lee offered, blushing again. Azula was studying her as if she was some kind of expensive bauble or intriguing painting.

Azula took Ty Lee's hand and Ty Lee blinked several times. This was already not going well. The princess studied the quavering fingertips she had in her grasp. Ty Lee watched how Azula's nails glinted in the light, and how her hands calmed slightly under the princess's warm touch. Her hands were hot in the cold night.

"I heard about you and that general," Azula said and Ty Lee's heart skipped a beat. "It's funny how fragile a career is. Mine, however, well, I was born with it."

And before Ty Lee could say anything, Azula had leaned forward and touched her lips to Ty Lee's neck. Her shoulders briefly shot up from the surprising contact, but they softened as Azula moved her crimson lips to Ty Lee's cheekbone.

Ty Lee was both glad of it and horrified. Glad of it because being guided to a stone bench by possibly the most attractive woman Ty Lee had ever met was thrilling, horrified because said woman was married and also the daughter of the Fire Lord. Why does Ty Lee get herself into these situations?

She was laid on her back before she could say anything. Yet as Azula slid up the light pink skirt, sharp fingernails brushing along the insides of Ty Lee's thighs and leaving her wet, Ty Lee jumped up, sending the princess stepping backwards quickly.

"I can't do this," Ty Lee said loudly before covering her mouth. She should not have argued. _Ugh_, this was going to get her exiled, executed or fired, and she did not know which was worse.

"You don't have to." Azula shrugged, although something in her eyes looked offended. Ty Lee's heart was beating out of her chest as she escaped the situation with less social grace than she was trained to use. Mostly by running back to her bedroom.

Azula looked after her and decided simply that she would have her one way or another regardless.

Hmph. Maybe Mai was right about the sexual obsession thing.

_The first time Azula realized she liked girls, it was when she met her first girlfriend. Also known as a servant in the palace. She was Azula's age and while Azula never associated with people who were beneath her, she became incredibly intrigued by the girl who waited on Azula hand and foot._

_ It was maybe the way she curled her lip when she concentrated or the curvature of her breasts, or maybe the fact that she had to do whatever Azula said under pain of death. It evolved into a relationship when Azula decided to make it evolve into a relationship._

_ "I really like you," she said softly and Azula knew it was true. She did not need to be told it but she liked to be told._

_ But Azula for some reason felt compelled to say, "I like you too."_

_ They kissed and touched and it was vaguely beautiful. Azula had to admit she was becoming enamored or infatuated with the girl. Lips and whispers in a nearly vacant palace._

_ But one day, she was gone. They did not meet at midnight as they intended to. Azula waited for her, feeling ridiculous. She waited for hours and hours, but slowly it dawned on her. And it was painful and enraging to the point that she simply wanted to burn the entire Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes to ashes. But slowly she coped._

_ Azula never saw her again._

Azula went to see Zurin before she went to bed. She was still flushed from attempting to fuck Ty Lee, and it not going well. But she found her daughter not asleep, of course, but reading in the dark.

"Why are you here?" Zurin looked genuinely baffled.

"Just to check on you," Azula said and it was mostly true. Zurin studied her mother closely before nodding. Azula knelt beside her and brushed her hair out of her face. "Do you like your new nanny?"

"Yes. She's really fun," Zurin said and Azula was startled. Zurin had only ever complained about anyone Azula and Mai got to take care of her.

This girl was intriguing. A soldier, performer and the only nanny Zurin had ever liked. Azula knew she had to have her regardless of what Mai _or _Ty Lee thought.

Azula gently tucked her daughter in, although she was never good at it, and went to sleep silently beside her wife.

Ty Lee was awake all night, staring at the ceiling and clutching a pillow to her chest.


End file.
